Anna Calvi and Ezra Furman announced as headliners at North Yorkshire's Deer Shed

ANNA CALVI returns to Deer Shed in 2019 but this time as the Friday night headliner.

The North Yorkshire-based event, one of the UK’s most popular family festivals, will also mark its tenth year by introducing a new Sunday night headliner slot.

Ezra Furman

Chicago rocker Ezra Furman will hit the main stage at Baldersby Park for that exciting change in format; previous Sunday headliners would finis early evening to allow families the chance to head home at a sensible time but sensible is, clearly, out of the window next year.

Furman promises to sign off the festival in style while the critically-acclaimed Calvi - with two Mercury Prize nominations - returns to Topcliffe three years after thrilling crowds when headlining its In The Dock Stage.

With her unique style and growing profile, she rightfully heads up to the main stage this time around as Deer Shed announces more of its key players for July 26-28.

“It was clear to us when we watched Anna Calvi headline our alternative stage in 2016 that her ability to write powerful and poignant rock songs, shred the guitar and command a festival crowd would make her an excellent choice to headline the Deer Shed Main Stage at some point in the future,” explained Deer Shed Festival director Oliver Jones.

Family fun at Deer Shed

“It’s now our belief that Anna Calvi has grown into one of the most exhilarating performers the UK live scene has to offer and, after the release of ‘Hunter’ in August, she went straight to the top of our list for 2019.”

The festival has a strong history of showcasing female headliners. The Unthanks, Beth Orton and Kate Tempest have headlined in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively while, of course, Goldfrapp performed her first ever festival headline set there this summer.

Other musical acts booked so far for 2019 are leading British hip-hop performer Akala, New Yorkers Sunflower Bean and ex-Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys.

Shortlisted for ‘Best Family Festival’ at the 2018 UK Festival Awards, Deer Shed has already sold more than 50 per cent of its 10,000 tickets allocated for 2019.

The rest of the festival’s music line-up, as well as its comedy, theatre, literary, science, sport and workshops programmes will all be revealed in the New Year.

Tickets - starting at £145 for the full weekend - are available from www.deershedfestival.com/tickets